Wish List: GORUCK Challenge

The Challenge is a 9-13 hour team event in which a Special Forces veteran — called a Cadre — leads you on a 15-20 mile “guided tour” of your city. It begins at night and runs until the morning. Along the way, you take part in military-inspired challenges and “missions,” which includes doing some basic training calisthenics, taking a little swim, carrying logs (and each other), and a lot of marching. Oh, and you do it all while wearing a backpack filled with 30 to 40 pounds of bricks and other equipment. They tell you to bring $20 for a taxi – if you can’t go on, you have to call one to pick you up.

I would LOVE to participate in something like that, nevermind that I’m a chick and nowhere near in shape to actually survive it. When I was in High School, I considered going into the armed forces and honestly the idea of boot camp and physical training was really, really exciting. Again, I turned into a fat lump of a computer programmer instead (go me!) but someday (hopefully within the next five years), I hope I could get myself in shape enough to complete one of these events.

Again, all the photos I can find of the event are all dudes, which makes me want to do it more.